


Reverse, Rewind, Play Again

by katling



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [20]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Author is salty, Bad Team Dynamics, Because I can, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Doctor Strange Compliant, Playing with the time lines, Sort Of, Team Tony, moderated for my peace of mind, not team Cap friendly, partially
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-06 15:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20293852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: When something strange happens to Tony on a botched Avengers' mission, Pepper and Rhodey are left wondering what happened and keeping things together. Then Tony comes back and the whole world is going to change.Some time changes in this one, in that the events of Doctor Strange play out a little differently and occur not long after Age of Ultron instead of around the time of Civil War.Written for the Tony Stark Bingo 2019 - Square S2: Picture of Pepper looking up at the face of the Iron Man armourWritten for the Ironstrange Bingo - Trapped





	Reverse, Rewind, Play Again

**Author's Note:**

> As I mentioned in the summary, I took some liberties with the timelines for this one. In this, the whole mess with Kaecilius is happening around the same time as this fic and Tony gets inadvertently caught up in an artefact that was triggered in the fight between Kaecilius and the Masters. The Masters didn't notice the artefact had been activated until after the whole Hong Kong thing and thus it took them a while to get Tony out. In the end, Stephen had to go in and work on it form the inside, hence he saw a whole lot of the possible future Tony lived through. Which is why he was actually willing to agree that the future might be able to be changed. 
> 
> As for why Tony didn't go back immediately after he was removed from the artefact... eh, its magic. Let's just roll with it for the sake of the fic, shall we?
> 
> Oh, and in this one, Tony and Pepper split up amicably shortly before the events of AoU and didn't get back together.
> 
> (In other words, I'm sure there are plot holes in this one but let's just wave our hands and say there isn't. Also, JARVIS lives, dammit.)

Pepper stood in front of the Iron Man suit standing still and silent in the middle of the workshop and stared up into the blank face plate as though it could somehow give her the answers she wanted.

“Where _are_ you, Tony?” she whispered, a question she’d been asking since the day the armour had returned to the Tower, empty and lifeless, no sign of the man who should be in it.

Even worse, there had been no indication of why he wasn’t in it. JARVIS had gone silent around the same time Tony had and even now, the AI was not responding to any of them, not even herself or Jim. He was still there, still in the mainframe, Jim had checked, but he could not be accessed and he was not responding.

“Pepper?”

Pepper turned around to see James Rhodes walk into the workshop. The Colonel looked tired and drawn and there was a limp that never seemed to go away, mostly because he refused to stop and let himself rest and heal properly. Pepper worried that he’d make the injury permanent but he refused to stop.

“Anything?” she asked.

Jim shook his head. “No sign of him.”

“There has to be something somewhere,” Pepper snapped, exasperated and more than a little heartsore. This was like Afghanistan all over again. “What did the Avengers say?”

Jim’s face darkened and Pepper regretted asking the question. The Avengers hadn’t had any answers the last few times they’d asked and she wasn’t sure why she’d thought things would have changed now.

“They’re not concerned,” Jim growled. “I had to leave before I punched them all in the face. Or worse.”

Pepper sniffed. “Well, maybe they’ll change their mind when the lights go out.”

Rhodes smirked. The two of them had talked about this over the last few weeks. The Avengers lack of concern about Tony was grating at best and Pepper had made some quiet moves to shore up her position as not only CEO but also her various powers of attorney over Tony’s affairs. Jim had done the same for the parts that were under his control. Today had been their last attempt to get some answers before they made their move, the first of which would be cutting off all funding and payments to the Avengers.

Some might call their actions petty but Tony had been on an Avengers mission when he’d gone missing. Jim had managed to get hold of all the video and audio as well as the pre-mission briefing before they all mysteriously disappeared from the Avengers’ computer system. They weren’t sure who had made them disappear but that didn’t really matter. They were gone. But Pepper and Rhodes had copies and they’d both viewed them and been appalled.

The Avengers had been asked to look into an abandoned base in Bulgaria. The Bulgarians didn’t know who it had belonged to but given that HYDRA had been active in the area over the decades, there was a distinct possibility it had belonged to them. The Avengers had been asked to help and had agreed to examine and explore the base and see what could be found. It appeared to be abandoned and during the course of their exploration, Tony had been sent off completely on his own. The only one to be given a solo task and based on the private comms between a number of the Avengers, it was entirely deliberate. They’d all made snide comments about not wanting to go with him. As far as Pepper and Jim were concerned, whatever had happened to Tony was on the Avengers’ heads.

Unfortunately, while the video and audio gave a lot of evidence of how appalling the Avengers’ behaviour was towards Tony, because he’d been on his own, it didn’t include any vision of what had happened to him. And if the suit had any information, it wasn’t giving it up. Jim had tried but had been stymied by Tony’s programming until he’d had to admit defeat.

“The public are starting to ask questions,” Pepper murmured. “I’m going to call a press conference for tomorrow and give them some answers.”

Rhodes nodded. This was something else they’d already discussed. Pepper wasn’t planning on lying and that would drop the Avengers right into it and since SI’s PR would no longer be answering the Avengers’ phone calls as of close of business today, that would leave them to the tender mercies of the press. Especially since Pepper intended to hand over copies of the videos to the reporters, along with a detailed list of everything Tony had done for the others… and a much, _much_ shorter list of the things they’d done for Tony. It was a _very_ short list.

Just as Pepper finished her sentence, the workshop came to life around them, startling them both. It was the only way to describe it. The armour somehow subtly straightened even more and there was a sense of presence that had been missing, a presence that both Pepper and Rhodes recognised as JARVIS.

“Good afternoon, Ms Potts, Colonel Rhodes,” the AI said smoothly.

“JARVIS?” Pepper said, her voice a high-pitched squeak.

“Yes, Ms Potts,” JARVIS said calmly. “I am certain you both have a number of questions.”

“Yes, starting with where the hell is Tony?” Rhodes said. He sounded angry but both Pepper and JARVIS knew it was worry that made his voice so harsh.

“Aw, did you miss me, honeybear?”

Tony’s voice coming through the suit’s speakers was warm and familiar and full of life, though both Pepper and Rhodes heard the undertone of weariness as well. It was startling given how his voice usually sounded.

“Tones?” Jim said. “Where the hell are you?”

“Um, yeah, about that.” There was a pause and the suit opened to reveal Tony looking like he’d never been missing. “Right here?”

Pepper and Rhodey stared at him in shock. “Tony?” Pepper finally said. “Have you been in there the whole time?”

Tony grimaced. “Well… yes and no.” He looked thoughtful. “I mean, sort of but not really.”

“Tones,” Rhodey said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“It’s a little complicated and I don’t really understand most of it myself.” He paused and rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Magic. But I was both here and there at the same time. Mostly there but still anchored here.”

“And where was there?” Rhodey asked with the patience of a man who had been dealing with Tony Stark for at least a couple of decades.

“Kathmandu,” Tony replied.

“You were in _Nepal_?” Pepper said.

“Yeah, sort of.” Tony ran a hand down his face. “It’s… complicated. Basically, something went wrong there and it kind of dragged me into it.”

“What could possibly have gone wrong in Nepal that would involve you?” Pepper demanded.

“Ah, yeah,” Tony said. “So… there’s this group of magic users there. They call themselves the Masters of the Mystic Arts. One of the sorcerers, some asshole called Kaecilius, was messing around with magic he shouldn’t have and I got caught up in it. Which the other Masters didn’t realise until everything was over. Half of the reason I was gone for so long was them figuring out how to get me out of where I had been trapped.”

“They didn’t think to tell us?” Rhodey said, raising an eyebrow.

“Things were a little confused there,” Tony explained. “The whole thing where I got trapped? Part of a bigger mess that left them without a leader until Strange stepped up.”

“Strange?” Pepper said.

“Dr Stephen Strange,” Tony said. “Remember him? Neurosurgeon. Came a few of our galas.”

Pepper frowned then her face cleared and she looked amused. “Oh, yes, I remember him. He was the one who was never overly impressed with you.”

Tony sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he still isn’t. Anyway, that’s not the important thing.”

Rhodey frowned. “Oh? What is?”

Tony drew in a deep breath and fumbled for a nearby stool. He sat down and both Pepper and Rhodey were immediately concerned but the sombre expression that grew on his face.

“So… the artefact that screwed up and trapped me shows people the future,” Tony began. “Not the absolute future – no one and nothing can do that, according to Stephen – but the most likely future based on the current circumstances.” He grimaced. “And my future… well, there were a couple of good things in it but I’d say about ninety-five percent of it sucked. Majorly sucked in most cases.”

Pepper and Rhodey exchanged glances and stepped forward. There was a haunted look about Tony that stopped their questions both about what he’d seen and the fact he was calling this Dr Strange ‘Stephen’. 

“So, what are you going to do?” Rhodey finally asked, his voice quiet and supportive.

Tony stared down at the floor for a moment then he drew in a deep breath and let it out again slowly. "Stephen says I _can_ change the future but only if I’m very careful. We sat down and worked out a lot of the key factors involved in the way things went so horribly wrong and… if I change them, I might be able to change the future. Stephen says there’s no guarantee and that the moment I start changing things, I won’t be able to rely on what I saw but…” He shuddered. “As much as I hate giving up the few good things I get in that future, I have to change all the shit that happened. I _have_ to.”

There was something so grim and troubled in the way Tony looked at Rhodey, in particular, that he and Pepper were both immediately worried.

“How much can you tell us?” Pepper asked.

Tony grimaced again. “Probably not much. Stephen warned me about… making people feel obligated to act in the way they did in the future. He said I should restrict my changes to things _I_ did and not force other people to change. Let things flow naturally.”

“Makes sense,” Rhodey said, settling himself so that he was leaning against the bench next to where Tony was sitting, his hip pressed against Tony’s shoulder. “Can you tell us anything about what you’re going to change?”

Tony nodded. “Step one, the first big change, I’m retiring from the Avengers. Completely. No more occasional availability, no more weapons and other toys and just the basic funding, enough to keep the lights on and the water running at the Compound but no more. Iron Man is going solo again.”

Pepper and Rhodey exchanged startled glances. For all that he’d ‘stepped back’ after the Ultron mess, Tony had never hesitated to do anything and everything for the Avengers, whether it was supply them with gear, go on missions at the drop of a hat without care or concern over what Tony _should_ be doing or paying for everything they wanted. All without a single word of thanks or even a hint of concern if he was injured on a mission.

“Not that we don’t agree wholeheartedly with that,” Rhodey said. “But… why?”

Tony went silent and still and that started alarm bells ringing in their heads. “The fall of SHIELD…” He looked up at them and there was something hard and cold in his eyes that sent a shiver down their spines. “You know, I always wondered why Rogers and Romanov didn’t call me.”

Rhodey glanced at Pepper and saw that she’d noticed the change from Steve and Nat to Rogers and Romanov. Before either of them could comment, Tony continued.

“Turns out Rogers doesn’t give a flying fuck about me and…” He gave a bitter laugh. “I suppose it comes as no surprise that Romanov doesn’t either.”

“Tones,” Rhodey began.

“The Winter Soldier, the guy who tore up DC back in that whole SHIELD/HYDRA mess, is Bucky Barnes,” Tony said flatly.

Both Rhodey and Pepper blinked. “The Howling Commando?” Rhodey finally managed.

“One and the same.” Tony went silent again and the grim look on his face sent a shiver up their spines. “He also killed Mom and Dad.”

Pepper looked horrified and she covered her mouth with one hand. Rhodey, who was just as shocked but a little more used to the way Tony’s brain could dart around, put that information together with what Tony had said about Rogers and Romanov.

“Son of a bitch,” he breathed. “They know.”

Tony nodded. “Now, I figure Romanov was never going to tell me unless there was something in it for her but Rogers…” His voice turned cold as ice. “He’s got no excuse.”

Rhodey nodded slowly. “Are you going to tell him you know?”

“No,” Tony said with a shake of his head. “And I know where Barnes is right now. So, I’m going to bring the Winter Soldier in from the cold.”

“Tones,” Rhodey began then he took a long, careful look at his friend. “Wait… how long were you trapped?”

Tony’s smile was thin but appreciative. “Not that long in real time but that future I told you about? I lived it. Or so it seemed. So weirdly enough, I’ve had plenty of time to wrap my mind around the whole idea.” He sighed and softened and ran a hand down his face. “I don’t blame Barnes. I don’t like him much and I’m not sure I want much to do with him once I bring him in but I don’t blame him. He was brainwashed and I’m not going to blame the weapon when I can blame the people who wielded him instead.”

“I’ll handle him,” Rhodey said. He shrugged. “Military POWs are more my field anyway. The Army will be interested as well.”

Tony gave him a wan smile. “Thanks, sugarplum.”

“What else?” Pepper said.

Tony let out a gusty huff and straightened up. “Quite a lot, Pep. But let me have a shower and let Stephen know I made it back. Then we can sit down and plan.”

Pepper nodded and smiled. “Sounds like a plan.” That smile turned rather wicked. “But it’s not only the plans I want to know about. I’d like to know more about _Stephen_.”

Tony’s eyes widened and Rhodey started laughing at the dumbstruck look on his face. 

“I… he…” Tony stammered.

“Is that a _blush_?” Rhodey said. He glanced over at Pepper, who looked more amused than anything else at the idea of Tony moving on from their relationship. “Pepper? What do you think?”

“Oh, that’s a blush,” she said. “And now I _really_ want to know about the man who makes Tony Stark blush.”

Tony spluttered and waved a hand. “There’s nothing to say and I need a shower.”

As he hurried out of the room, Pepper and Rhodey started laughing. It was a sound of relief more than anything else. They knew there were a lot more questions to come and the days ahead would not be easy but Tony was back and that was what was most important to them.


End file.
